Dreams, mandalas, and music imagery: Therapeutic uses in a case study

Abstract

This paper explores the use of dreams, Guided Imagery and Music, and the Mandala Card Test as three primary modalities in the treatment of a 35year-old female. A combination of these methods assisted the therapist in accessing the dynamics of this client at several levels of consciousness. Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) is an innovative form of therapy developed by Helen Bonny (1980, pp. 39-58). It utilizes music to evoke imagery, uncover hidden emotional responses, and to stimulate creative insights. With GIM, music tapes from a specially designed series are used to bridge the conscious and the unconscious mind. The GIM therapist chooses a music tape to evoke imagery according to the needs of the client (e.g., the Comforting/Anaclytic tape is a series of classical pieces that stimulate memories of early childhood and/or male/female issues). The music stimulates an experience that is similar to an awake dream. The client is put into a relaxed state of mind, listening and responding to music with spontaneously produced images. As a projective technique, the focus in GIM is on the music, which stimulates the colorful and often emotion-laden world of inner imagery. In Jung’s personal confrontation with the unconscious he endeavored to “translate the emotions into images, or rather to find the images that were concealed in the emotions.” He felt the more images he was able to bring to consciousness, the more he was “inwardly calmed and reassured.” Furthermore, he added, “had I left those images hidden in the emotions, I might have been torn to pieces by them (Jung, 1963, p. 177). As a circular art form the mandala is an archetypal symbol representing wholeness. Mandalas drawn in therapy sessions are interpreted on the basis of color, movement and symbols. Joan Kellogg (1978) has proposed that subjects tend to produce mandalas that conform to 13 basic structures she calls “Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala.” She designed the Mandala Card Test (see Figure 1) with these 13 stages as its basis. There are two versions of each stage, providing 26 basic design cards from which to choose. These forms are embossed in black on clear plastic cards, allowing color cards to be placed under each one. For the test, the client chooses Iive designs and a color card for each design. The study of dreams, a well-known therapeutic technique, is also used throughout the course of this therapy and greatly influences our understanding of the client’s underlying problems and the progress of therapy. Dreams as indicators of the deeper unconscious, the altered state imagery of GIM, the interpretation of mandalas, and the Mandala Card Test are interrelated and reinforce each other. Together they provide a well-rounded assessment and treatment process.